Under the 1691 Charter, “freeholders” could call a town meeting whenever they saw fit—but no longer: “Whereas a great abuse has been made of the power of calling such meetings, and the inhabitants have, contrary to the design of their institution, been misled to treat upon matters of the most general concern, and to pass many dangerous and unwarrantable resolves,” the 1774 act declared, “no meeting shall be called by the Selectmen, or at the request of any number of freeholders of any township, district, or precinct, without the leave of the Governor, or, in his absence, of the Lieutenant Governor, in writing, expressing the special business of the said meeting.”
Likewise, on the provincial level, power was wrested from the people. No longer would the incoming “general court or assembly” choose the Governor’s Council:
Whereas the said method of electing such counsellors or assistants. . . hath been so far from contributing to the attainment of the good ends and purposes thereby intended, and to the promoting of the internal welfare, peace, and good government of the said province, or to the maintenance of the just subordination to, and conformity with, the laws of Great Britain, . . . the said method of annually electing the counsellors or assistants . . . should no longer be suffered to continue . . .
Be it therefore enacted . . . that the council, or court of assistants, shall be composed of such of the inhabitants or proprietors of lands within the same as shall be thereunto nominated and appointed by his Majesty.
All other officers would also be appointed by the governor, who could remove them at will:
It shall and may be lawful for his Majesty’s Governor for the time being of the said Province, or, in his absence, for the Lieutenant Governor, to nominate and appoint, under the seal of the Province, from time to time, and also to remove, without the consent of the Council, all Judges of the Inferior Courts of Common Pleas, Commissioners of Oyer and Terminer, the Attorney General, Provosts, Marshals, Justices of the Peace, and other officers to the Council or Courts of Justice.
The Massachusetts Government Act, as we call it today, was to take effect on June 1, 1774. Ironically, on June 6 the Boston Gazette published news that Parliament was considering the act—and it wasn’t until mid-July that colonists learned it had actually passed.[3]
The Act prompted outrage, for its tone as well as its substance. “Just subordination” and “just dependance of the said province upon the crown and parliament of Great Britain” did not play well in Massachusetts. It generated immediate response—more widespread than the Boston Port Act, which preceded it. In Boston and environs, reliant on trade, the Port Act was huge, but elsewhere, where 95 percent of the people resided, yanking away their charter triggered an irreversible break from Crown and Parliament.[4]